Covers : homage, détournement or sarabande en bas de l'escalier
?
Albums of covers might be even more fashionable today than they ever were.
Often, one has to admit, such an exercise reveals itself as a bit pointless,
more particularly when it appears as the homage of a fan expressing his
allegiance or, on the opposite side of the spectrum, as the détournement
of works made so unrecognizable that one comes to seriously ask oneself
why and how they possibly could have marked an audience or an era.
This album, composed of covers of the legendary Tuxedomoon – a Californian
group in a state of perpetual exile since the beginning of the eighties
– takes a third avenue, that is the one of the references game that
will accordingly be named the sarabande en bas de l'escalier avenue. The
learned fan will find himself lost in a very improbable place, sort of
a Gothic cathedral where the gargoyles are blinking at each other; others
will recognize the sonorities of a distant melody, a part of the soundtrack
of the eighties, as heard by nowadays' ears. This approach is not exclusive
of homage (as some of the artists participating to this album are indeed
fans of Tuxedomoon) or détournement (the cover of "Queen Christina"
by Simon Fisher Turner is a brilliant illustration), but its playful aspect
brings it close to a Dada manifesto reminding of the origins of Tuxedomoon.